The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today released a draft revision of FGIS Directive 9060.2, “Implementation of the FGIS-FDA Memorandum of Understanding,” to reflect updated processes in reporting contaminated lots of grain to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The draft directive is available on the AMS website.
Under the updated draft directive, for certain conditions, grain elevators will be allowed to take minor cleaning steps (e.g., screening, aerating) to remove easily separable actionable criteria from lots. This will save time and costs associated with waiting for FDA response before reconditioning lots to be free from contaminants.
After minor cleaning steps are performed, FGIS will officially sample and inspect the cleaned lot to determine if actionable criteria are still present. If no longer present, the grain elevator may proceed with loading the lot onboard the carrier.
If actionable criteria remain in the lot, the grain elevator must work with FDA to submit and execute a formal reconditioning plan. Additionally, the directive has been updated to better align with FDA Compliance Guides and provides updated FDA contact information for reporting purposes.
Interested stakeholders may submit comments on this draft directive by March 28, 2025, to Jacob.D.Thein@usda.gov or by phone at 816-702-3923.
Once any necessary clarifications are made, AMS will publish a final directive on its website.
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